Turkiye 2024, Pt 1. Are we there yet?

 Well, we obviously did make it across from North Cyprus in one piece. Wonders never cease.

We had a peaceful night before our departure, tied up along the customs dock, trying to ignore some of the issues that we hadn't fixed or solved. It was up at 4am on Tuesday 7th May,  groggily dragging on clothes, for once looking very like our passports photos. Captains and crew of the 5 boats travelling together presented to the port police to process our passports, then into another office for customs. The customs officer had 2 important questions for us - do we have alcohol on board? No, we don't....  long staring pause while he waited for us to crack....   Then, do you have cigarettes? Phew, an easy one, and he stamped us out, and we were no longer residing at Karpaz Gate.

Setting off with Impavidus in the background 

Ant and Cid, who have 6 years under their
belt and a very helpful youtube channel, SV Impavidus, led us all off, with Kirrikie, Blue Eyes, Eternite and White Cat following behind. Motor on, we rounded out of the marina into the wind and choppy waves just under a metre on the nose, the sun just beginning to rise on our starboard side, looking forward to a 45nm journey straight across to a protected bay in Tisan. There was no plan to sail that day, all of us intent on getting across in time to travel on the next day towards Finike to avoid sailing against the forecasted wind.

Unlike the other boats , as we had not resolved why we didn't have a autopilot, GPS or AIS, our plan was to hand steer during each day, anchor down at night and 'hop' our way around the Gulf of Antalya reaching Finike some days after the other boats. We did have some limitiations as the weather window was tight, and we would not have checked into Turkey.   

As we surged and bumped forwards, we looked back at the twinkling lights on on the coastline of Northern Cyprus, contemplating our journey so far and what a unique experience it is. The 5 boats had spread out quite a bit, and we were a little suprised to see White Cat in the distance rising so high we could see the underside of their twin hulls, before plunging down into the waves again. Glad we were on a monohull!

Gradually we sliced forward, overtaking SV Impavidus; I felt like an naughty kid breaking free on a school excursion, but Kirrikie had a clean hull and she was not holding back. (Kirrikie is the longer of the 2 boats as well). The boats communicated occasionally using the VHF, but gradually we could only pick up Impavidus as we pulled away.  It was a pretty much peaceful trip, with the conditions becoming calmer, while also watching the progress of squalls to the starboard side of us, and at one point watching a waterspout form and move towards and behind us. Waterspouts can be a serious hazard to yachties, and no-one was happy to see this. We were fortunate to be a little forward of it's path, but the boats at the rear had to be more wary. Looking it up, it was probably a "fair-weather" waterspout, which was less dangerous, but still, let's not get close to one.

Expecting a rougher trip, we were pleasantly surprised to pull in behind a little island in the bay near Tisan at 12.30pm, with the whole afternoon before us to relax, have a Lima Lima Delta (Mike's code words for a little lie down) and look at our options for the next day. The other 4 boats came in within the hour, all of us flying our yellow quarantine flags to indicate we were in transit. We concluded that the 2 hour shifts to hand steer had been quite manageable. We could possibly to this at night if we had to, but it was not a choice we wanted to make, and so we would not be sailing directly to Finike with the rest of our little flotilla.

The entrance to Tisan, our first stop in Turkiye for this year 

Impavidus,  Eternite, White Cat, Blue Eyes and us chilling in Tisan

The next morning Mike got up early to farewell our friends as they set off into the sunrise; we waited a little longer, up-anchoring at 6.30am for a 46nm journey west to Anamur Point, practically the only place for us to pause safely before either heading around or across the Gulf of Antalya. It was another pleasant day, once arriving in the early afternoon. Anamur was a bit of a surprise; it was a bit rolly (it would have been worse elsewhere), but the scenery was beautiful with very impressive ruins right on the shoreline. These turned out to be the Anemurian Ancient City, an important strategic city during the Roman and Byzantine Period, with it's proximity to Cyprus,  the main Eastern Mediterranean sea routes and was a gateway to the Anatolian region. Apparently it has the ruins of an acropolis, cisterns, baths, basilica, and excellent mosiacs to name a few features. 

Detail of Anemurian Ancient City, which covered the shoreline and hillside

However tantalising and tempting it was to lower the dinghy and have a good look, all I could do was gaze over the water. Mike wasn't keen to risk it, and once again he was right, as we had our first visit from the Turkish coast guard for 2024. They seemed to be confused why we were sitting there, the only boat in the area, with no evidence of checking in to the country. We tried to explain the lack of electronic crew members dictating our slow journey to Finike (with proof that we had arranged to checkin with an agent as required), which they might not have believed. However it allllll changed when they asked Mike what he had done for a living. Helicopter rescue crewman? Well! Isn't he a hero? They loved it, were very helpful, so that is a tactic we will use another day. 

It was at this stage we reviewed our proposed journey and with the need to find good shelter long before reaching Finike becoming more pressing, decided to run up the coastline towards Alanya, and hopefully find a Raymarine technician to help us. This would require checking in early and therefore find a new agent en-route. Good plan. VERY expensive. Having to check-in at Alanya, and stay in a Marina for 3 nights cost us 500Euro more than planned. 

The marina technician found a raymarine representative who might come down from Antalya in a few days. OK.  But not if we are Russian. Basically Raymarine refuse to assist Russian sailors. Ouch. And we were the only non-Russians on the pontoon. It was actually really nice watching our neighbours interact, a family with 2 little girls playing and riding their bikes, a lone sailor with old boat he was repairing joining the family next door for dinner, the ever-so glam Russian woman who's sparkly jewellery broke apart as she clip-clopped up the jetty in her spikey shiney shoes, leaving a trail of glittering bits behind her. 

While we waited for news of the techinican we played tourist. Alanya is a beach resort city, and we really liked it; not expecting to visit at all, we thought it was a bit of a bonus to be there.  There are remains nearby indicating occupation as far back as 20,000BC. So maybe I'll skip the history lesson....  There is a beautful old harbour featuring the Kizil Kule (Red Tower, circa 1221), one of 83 towers of the Alanya Castle and which also protected the Tersane, a medieval drydock. Above that is the fantastic and beautiful Alanya Castle, actually a citadel dating from 1226 with walls 6.5ks long and 140 towers. In 2007 renovations of the remaining sections began, including a Byzantine church, the Suleimaniye mosque (still in use today,  and the call to prayer we heard was pretty impressive) and caravanserai* built by Suleiman the Magnificent. Placed high on the rocky peninsular overlooking the city, it made for spectacular viewing. Of course, being tourists, we had to access this treat via the cable car from the beach, before climbing up steep stairways. The complex is quite spread out, with many different paths to meander down, it was a lovely day.

But back to the problem at hand and Kirrikie. Mike continued to scratch his head, why didn't the GPS work?? Suddenly he let out a shout as he found the 'problem'. 

ARE WE F*CKING IDIOTS OR WHAT?!!     Huh?   I'd like to point out here that technically, he is the effin idiot, but ably supported by me, the perfect Idiot's Apprentice.

There was another swtich. On our navigation panel. Slightly separated from the other navigation switches, but still...     Clearly marked as LOG AND AP.  In our 7 months away we had become very disconnected from everything we should have done instinctively, and Mike has missed this button in every single problem solving excercise. He turned it on, annnnd  ... the GPS came on. The Autopilot came on. The AIS I had been struggling with was another step closer to working. We didn't need to hand steer. We didn't need to pay exhorbitant fees to come to Alanya.....  I was so relieved I laughed, but bloody hell, how dumb are we????? I resolved that we were never going to tell anyone how we 'fixed' the autopilot, too embarrasing, but well it's too good a story, and some of our friends could do with a laugh too.

Look Ma! No hands!

Free at last. After our 3 day wait in the marina, we set out to cross the Gulf  heaading to one of a choice of 2 anchorages near Kemer, a little way from Finike. This was a a longer day, once again motoring with 71.5nm to cover, ending up in Boncuklu Koyu after visiting pretty Cow Cove, well that's what we call it after the local bovine residents. A good medium sized pretty bay, it was a bit rolly, so we moved on promptly the next day. Making good progress until we were chased down by the Coastguard. We would not be permitted to continue on to, or past, Finike. There was an international military air, sea and land exercise being conducted, and we were about to enter the area on use for that day. Do not pass go or collect $200.

Tourist Gullet and Cows side by side

Not looking forward to another rolly night,  we turned around and luckily tucked into a the large bay Cavu Koyu,  already inhabited by one Turkish Navy patrol boat. It turned out to be quite an entertaining day/night as 11 patrol boats made our bay their home,  while 4 frigates sailed backwards and forwards near the entrance. At one stage 5 vessels were rafted together -  Party Time! 

Hello Sailor!

Finally next morning we putted past sleeping sailors, and poked our nose out of the bay, not knowing what was in store.  Seemed ok, let's go. And keep going. Past Finike,  and our final destination for this leg was Kekova, the very first area  we visited in 2023, and one of our favourite places.

So early afternoon on 14th May,  we lowered our anchor to find we were among friends again, as all four of our original flotilla were also enjoying this lovely sanctuary. 

Kekova

Things were looking up,  we had a working boat, beautiful scenery and some catching up to do.  The plan to sail Greece, Montenegro and Croatia for our 2024 sailing season was back on track ...

Or, in the words of the illustrious author, Mick Macfarlane, "What can possibly go wrong?"...

Image supplied by author, available in all good online Amazon bookshops 😉

 *caravanserai were road side inns or  accommodation for travellers and traders, and it seems often situated within castles or fortifications as well.

For another account of the flotilla's crossing, or great drone footage of Tisan Bay, please checkout SV Impavidus on YouTube: 

Back to the Boat - Life in Cyprus while preparing for life on the sea again

 Well my friends, just in case you are that one person who hasn't been bored to death with baby spam and doesn't know, we returned to Perth late October 2023 to be with Jess and Lucas for the birth of their first, and VERY likely, only child. We scraped it in, with Kanoa Helios Agostinho arriving 2 weeks after we got home. Due to some difficulties they experienced, we ended staying home for 7 months, enjoying our extended family and our new home in the sunshine.

Finally I tore Mike away from his baby and we departed, visiting Mike's family in Cornwall - such a chore! Not! - before we returned to Kirrkie in Karpaz Gate Marina.

Boats wintering in the sunshine at Karpaz Gate Marina 

Returning to a boat that has been basically locked up for a long period can be a be a bit daunting. Will it be riddled with mould? Will it be scurrying with little critters that have crawled out of the cardboard and into the cupboards? Will there be a bird's nest in the rigging? Will the heads be a  - on seconds thoughts, I won't elaborate on that one. 

Thanks to our neighbours and friends who kept an eye out for us, the boat was in pretty good shape. The lovely Ian and Janine welcomed us back with the basic food essentials we needed  - breakie, tea, chocolate biscuits - to carry us over. 

The the big draw back to being in Karpaz Gate, near the north- eastern tip of an island, is that there are no taxis, and no public transport,  and the nearest village is more than a hike away. The marina bus can take you to the village for basic shopping, but that doesn't cover what boaties need such as croissants and bacon and that part you need for your whatsamacallit. The 3 big towns in Northern Cyprus are Nicosia/Lefkos, Kyrenia/Girne and Farmagusta/Gazimagusta (note the use of both Greek and Turkish names, both seem to be ok to use) which are all 1-1.5hours away. By car. Boaties spending the winter aboard often give up and by a car to sell before leaving,  or at least share rental.  

The sunsets, the lap pool, Hemingway's restaurant, the beach club... the marina had it's good points...

I was really grateful that Janine offered on our first day back  to take me shopping to stock up. She whizzed me through the countryside to the nearest big supermarket - 30 minutes away next to a paddock and large roundabout. Excellent. Then, was I in a hurry and did I want a cuppa? (Absolutely not in a hurry to go back to unpack, so No and Yes!). Off we go again in another direction, for 20 minutes to another town and another big roundabout to have real coffee and pastries. Mmmmm Poor Mike.  Then whizz back in another way to the village for fresh veggies and Turkcell... I was completely lost, and it took me weeks to get my bearings. Janine and Ian continued to be our lifesavers and drove us all over the island when they could, leaving their poor dog Lucy behind on their boat SV Deejay while we occupied her place in the car.

We had a few days before our scheduled haul out to check the underside of Kirrikie, make repairs and apply antifoul. Nothing we needed was available, so a plan as needed.  
We hired a car for $$$ and a minimum of 3 days, made our list, and headed for the chandlery in Kyrenia, which turned not only to be the smallest chandlery I've seen to date, but was also closed. No matter, we spoke to the man trying to sell tickets on a tourist boat trip, who rang the shop proprietor, who said no problem,  I'll come down and open up... you gotta love these people. (Except when it comes to time keeping, shocking).  Loading the car with primer and antifoul but unfortunately not much else, we scoured hardware stores and gleefully I whizzed around a big supermarket with western goods, while Mike started to feel unwell and coughed.

Peace monument in Kyrenia

Venetian Castle, Kyrenia

Kyrenia Harbour 

During the day we also visited the Bellapais Abbey, originally Abbaye de la Paix (Abbey of Peace) up in the hills behind Kyrenia. I have mentioned this on Facebook, first built about 1200BC.  Apart from it's bucolic location, I don't think it was very peaceful. It was built by the French, raided by the Genoese, the Venetians took over in 1489, the Ottomons took control, expelled the monks and gave it to the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus, who neglected it and it fell into disrepair. In 1878 The British who controlled Cyprus cemented the refrectory floor and turned it into a hospital. Now it still stands majestically on the slopes looking down to the sea, a major tourrist attract for the village of Bellapais which has grown around it. I do wish we had more time to look around, as another claim to fame is that Gerald Durrell lived, and set his 'Bitter Lemons' book, here.

Having the car for 3 days, and expecting to be in Karpaz Gate for 2 weeks, we planned to be tourists for that time. However, Mike shared the lurgy baton, which I took and bloody ran with for weeks... still am. So for our other outing we leisurely explored the far end of North Cyprus, the Dikarpaz town and national park. The drive was wonderful, past the protected donkeys you have to feed or enter some level of hell, and a monastery we thought was pretty drab, to a little restaurant perched on small cliffs above the bluest azure waters we've seen since, well, Western Australia. Beautiful.

Looking down to the Marina

More Carrots!!

After indulging in the best Koftas we'ver ever had we drove home through beautiful pastoral lands, with golden crops, green spring shoots, red and pink oleanders, blue sky... it was stunning. I kept seeing Russell Crow in his Gladiator outfit out of the corner of my eye, walking through the fields with his outstretched hand drifting over the crops. This was a very different country to the hot, dry, barren land we left in September.

The next day, finally,  Kirrikie was lifted out of the water and parked on metal stands for a week of work on the underside bits. Or so we thought. Apparently despite all our communications over many months, the yard manager hadn't scheduled any work to be done til the following week. We only had a visa for 30 days and this would be a very tight schedule. Two weeks plus, on the hard... I wasn't always steady on my feet with the lurgy - and climbing up and down the ladder with vertigo wasn't a pleasant prospect. Not long before we'd arrived, a man had had a disastrous fall from his boat breaking his pelvis, ribs, arm etc and was going to be in hospital or for months. A German sailor had a heart attack on the second night we were on the hard, and then a few days later another man fell off his boat and broke his leg. I was soooo bloody careful going up and down that ladder!

Mike got busy straight away, pulling bits apart to find out why our bow thruster didn't work, which had stopped working the moment we needed it to take the boat to be lifted out. Dire predicitons were made by the yard staff, at one stage the idea was to order a new one which would take weeks or months to arrive from Turkey. Eventually after completely taking it apart, all it was was a battery problem. Fixed by a visit to the second nearest village. The damage to the rudder by the previous owners (easily done) was examined and found to be minor, and Ian taught Mike how to fibreglass and repair the small section needing attention. Two yard staff spent what I thought was a very short time sanding the bottom of the boat to repair it for antifouling. Mike cleaned and polished the propeller and shaft. After a 4 day process the hull above the waterline was expertly cut and polished by a local man, whose pride in his work was worth paying for. Then Mike treated the keel with rust repellent, then primed the hull and finally applied 3-4 coats of antifoul.  He checked and pumped the dinghy, looked for holes, try to glue it and we considered either a replacement or getting new tubes for it in Turkey. Ahhh stuff it, do we really need to do this and waste time in Turkey? hmmmm

He was also trying to find out why our chartplotter wsn't receiving a satellite signal. The chartplotter is the boat's brain, it tells us where to go, where we are, how fast or slow wer're going, how deep it is, what the wind strength is, and with our AIS who else is out there while telling them where we are. Many people made suggestions, and the conclusion was that we needed to be somewhere else other than Karpaz Gate to get the correct parts or expertise.

Meanwhile I coughed and spluttered and flopped uselessly about, and apart from
washing bedding and a bit of cleaning, can't remember actually achieving anything. I
certainly didn't make the effort in helping coat the keel with rust inhibitor, or paint the
hull with primer or 3 to 4 coats of antifoul. Finally, fed up with my coughing, Mike
convinced me to get medical help, and Janine took me to the local medical centre/A&E. I only mention this because the whole Turkisk/North Cyprus medical system is a topic of many a conversation, because it's so good. I presented at the front desk, aware that I would pay a small fee before seeing someone. That will be 50 Turkish lira she said, gosh I thought that really is cheap, handing over a 50 lira note. No, I was wrong. It was 15 lira! So not $2.35, but $0.70. I kid you not. I waited about 10 minutes, went in with a bored translator, the Dr seemed to agree with my google diagnosis of bronchitis, wrote several scripts while the translator kept muttering about a mask and machine, and off we went to the closest pharmacy, in a nearby field of course. I picked up antibiotics, cold and flu medication, cough mixture, vitamins to take with the antibiotics, painkillers, Ventolin, Cortair and a nebuliser. This whole lot plus that massive hosptial fee came to $162.

Market day in our local village, Yenienrenköy

Street Art, Yerierenköy

Eventually, I started to feel better, perhaps because I had now shared the lurgy with
Janine, who, when she could talk, dubbed it marina kennel-cough. So I managed to scrub
the fenders, scrub the dinghy (with little result), treat part of the anchor chain for rust and took 2.5 days to service 3 winches. I also continued troubleshooting our issues with our AIS, which I started in 2023, trying to change the settings so we can be seen as Kirrikie, not AB Sea, with the help and instructions from the manufacturer's help-desk and a new PC. At one stage it looked succesful, but at the time of writing, we are invisible.

I generously offered up Mike's diving skills, so he helped Ian by cleaning Deejay's propeller and some the hull, checking anodes and chucking in a diving lesson as well. Mike was impressed - Ian was a pretty quick learner, but on his first lesson declined to do a somersault in the water. Good decision Ian.

But all the while we tried to ignore the most needy task, replacing the old smelling hose connecting the aft loo with the holding tank. This tank had been added to the boat after it was manufactured to meet regulations of countries like Turkey. This resulted in an awful plan where the tank is a sail locker in the front of the boat, about 6 metres away and ABOVE the toilet level. So you can imagine how unlikely it is for the contents to adequately flow uphill into the tank. Add to this is the fact that the hose runs under the floor, then next to our bed, twisting at different angles until it connects to the tank very close to where Mike's head (the thinking one) is. It had to be cut into 3 sections, that's 6 ends for contents to escape.... oh the horror. It took 3 hours and many of our remaining years to get it out.

Finally it was time to return Kirrikie to the water, where it was time for some more
cleaning, sorting, swearing. We cleaned and treated the teak floors and seats, filled up
new fuel cans, lubricated rigging, cleaned the decks and the canvases, and eventually got the new hose back in.    

All the while we were concious of the days left on our visas, which expired on 6th May, watching the weather forcast for a possible departure date.  It wasn't looking good so on the previous Wedneday we hired a car again and took off for Nicosia where we understood that the police (not customs?) could extend our Visa. Yes they can, but it was May 1st, and so it was a public holiday. Please come back another day.

Our saviours, Ian and Janine

Looking back at Kyrenia ferry port

Thursday we treated ourselves to a visit to Farmagusta with Janine for much needed yarn for crochet projects, leggings to cut up to make fender covers (if you merge a legging and a fender, does it become a fegging?), shopping and lunch. So it was back to the police station on Friday, with Ian as chauffer, for our visas. What they didn't mention on Wednesay was we needed to be at a different police station.. back into the car. Eventually we got sorted, and was given another 3 weeks just so we could leave in a few days. Ok, we can leave Monday. No, we will definitely leave Tuesday. Or Wednesday. In the meantime we socialised in the evenings, learning and laughing with - 

Tina and Pete (thank you for everything, including us in your outings and especially the haircut), Mike and Deb, David and Dee, Ant and Cid, Klaus and Pia, Steve and Emma, local expats Sue and Alan, Jonathan the Karpaz Gate Mayor, David and Juliet, Hope and Howard, Cass and Shelley, Joe and Sarah, David and Anne..  

After negotiation with the marina management by the captains and crew of SV Impavidus and SV Eternite, we and four other boats lined up 'on the wall' on Monday evening, with a special arrangement with the customs office and police to check us out very early on Tuesday 6th May - 3.30-4.00am - so we could leave and start our sailing adventures for the year. (I think this is the only time that we bleary-eyed sailors actually looked like our passport photos).

And on Monday evening, as we motored over to the wall, all paperwork complete and only a few farewells to go, our autopilot, our 3rd crew member who steers for us, failed to turn on. Pretty sure we'd checked that when we arrived. FFS!

Early morning view of Karpaz Gate Marina 

So, did we leave or did we stay and lose our minds? Could we cope without our brain and extra crew member? 

You'll have to wait for our next blog.... but hint, it transpires that we were more brainless than anyone can think possible and still be allowed to own and operate a boat.

(PS If you are interested in a very brief explanation of the recent-ish history of Cyprus, watch this video... )